MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State football team held its annual media day activities on Friday afternoon at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Head Coach Bill SnyderOn players’ summer preparation…“Not bad. Never as good as I would have liked, and it varies because some of them are very well conditioned. More of them are well conditioned. More of them have got through the first two practices indicating to me that they took their conditioning seriously during the summer, but not all of them.“

On the leadership of Collin Klein and Arthur Brown…“I think the young people in our program accept Collin as a strong, reliable leader in our program throughout both sides of the ball. I think they have shown respect for him, and you cannot be a leader if you do not have that. I am confident that he does, and I think that he has emerged and has gotten a little bit stronger in terms of his leadership on a regular basis. I have said so many times he has become more vocal, more demanding, and he does it in a positive way with his teammates. I like the directions he has gone. Like I said about Arthur (Brown) and Collin so many times, they are at two different levels in terms of their outgoingness. They are both very humble. Consequently, that was not his (Collin’s) nature to be as outgoing and as demanding as he has become. Our players respect that because he always sets examples. The same thing is true with Arthur, still a very quiet young man, but he has made the attempt also to become a more demanding leader in the program. It is a sacrifice on their part, and I greatly appreciate it. They do it for one reason and one reason alone because they know it is the right thing to do and they really care about the people in the program. They want to help their teammates help them become the best they can possibly become.”

On Defensive Coordinator Tom Hayes…“Tom, I have known for a very long time. We have played against Tom on previous occasions, when he was at the University of Kansas and also at Oklahoma. He has a plethora of experience as a coordinator, as well as an interim head coach for a few ball games at the University of Kansas. He was the coordinator at Oklahoma. He was a coordinator on the west coast at UCLA. He spent time in the NFL, but it is not the NFL experience that is significant to me because it is a different game. It is the fact that he has had the experience on an ongoing basis, which I think is significant, and he certainly demands a respect from his players because of his knowledge of defensive football and of football in general. Like everything else though, we have to get better at everything. The numbers would indicate that we were a little better against the run and pass, and most people would look at statistics and say we need to improve against the pass, which we do. We also need to improve against the run. So collectively we need to become a better football team defensively. I would not say anything different about the offense because the same thing is true there. Statistically, the defense against the passing game may have suffered, but you have to look at this conference. You look at the conference and there are teams that are throwing the ball an average of 400 yards per ballgame against some very fine football teams. In this league, statistics throwing the football are going to be significantly higher than they might normally be in most conferences. Consequently, the reverse effect is you have to be better on pass defense unless you decide you will line up and outscore people, which are not our kids. “

On the previous season’s statistics…“If you are interested in statistics you have to find the ones that may really be significant. Like all football coaches, we talk diligently, but we also work at it as well. It is being able to be secure with the football, not having turnovers, not getting penalized which we were pretty good in those categories, in terms of statistics and national rankings. We talk so much about being able to maintain possession of the football, possession time and not creating turnovers. We were good in those numbers, but the other thing is what we talk about all the time is we developed the values that you hear me talk about so often, the values that we all hold dear for our children, which I hold for the kids in our program. I really believe that our young people believe in those intrinsic values that are our team goals. They give it their best effort to try and live those goals, and I think that some of those things that deal with hard work and not giving in prove true because we won seven out of eight games decided in the fourth quarter, come from behind victories. That takes those values. You do not do that on sheer talent. It happens because there is something else there. The good things that people do outside of athletics are just those intrinsic values. It is a want to. I think that had a major impact on the outcome of the season or at least winning 10 games. I would like to have thought we could have won more, but that had a lot to do with it. A lot of it had to do with good fortune as well. I am a firm believer in making your own good fortune, but by the same token, the chip just falls in your lap the right way.”

On Collin Klein’s health…“Whether you are throwing it, running it, or handing the ball off to someone else, you always run the risk of getting hit. That is the game as it is. It is so easy to say that we are not the best at. Do I want Collin (Klein) to stay healthy? I want every player in our program to stay healthy. Is it significant for his performance level? I want him healthy because I want him to be able to play through the season. I want him to be able to enjoy his senior year. I want him to enjoy his experience. When we try to manipulate certain things in our lives, I am not sure how that comes out in a positive thing. We all have those experiences outside of athletics.“

On summer workouts…“I think there are a lot of young guys that had an impact on bringing our football team together over the course of the summer and trying to relive those values we mentioned earlier. I am still not totally satisfied with where it needed to be, and that is evidence I mentioned before. Most of them are here, as I said, they are well-conditioned and their skill level still seems to be on track and some that are not there yet. I would like to see all of them in that capacity. It may be a little better than the summer before, but it is still not what it needs to be.”

On the running game…“I am not sure how you would define speed game. We might be a little quicker team collectively, but we are not an extremely fast football team. We have enough speed at a variety of different spots that makes us a fast team. We still have some growing in that area as far as how fast we operate in the tempo of our offense. Last year we were a slow football team and that shows in the possession time we had during the ball game. We are a team that normally utilizes the clock in that fashion, but that is not totally what we can do. We can go as fast as we want. We do not have to huddle. It is what suits our needs at the time or the game that we are participating in.“

On the improvement of the offensive line…“It is a work in progress, but it is a body of work that is moving along in an appropriate manner. I think we have the capacity to be an improved offensive line. We are not collectively there yet, but I think we are moving in that direction. We have young guys, hard workers, guys that have athletic capabilities that have some strength to them as well, intelligent young guys that pick up the game at a reasonable pace and guys that are committed to that daily improvement. I think they are on course that way. I think that coming out of spring practice we were better than we were then, and I think going into the fall workouts, we appear better than we did in summer workouts.”

On West Virginia and TCU…“The two incoming programs, we have great respect for. They are well coached teams and have a tremendous amount of talent. They are programs at a national scope. For those of you who cast ballots you seem to think the same thing we do. They are top-10, top-12 in the country. That continually makes us an extremely talented and strong conference. Everybody recognizes that it is still a very talented and strong conference.”

On the newcomers…“It depends on how you view newcomers. For me, our two redshirt freshman offensive line are newcomers in my way of thinking. It is pretty hard to step in and go, although some guys have done it. I like to think it is those younger guys that would have an impact. When we say impact, it means making the headway and progress we like to see and we believe is doable. It would certainly include the two offensive linemen we have. You look every place where we had a graduate. You have to have somebody to step up and develop in those areas. I look at our secondary and a key force is a guy like Thomas Ferguson, Kip Daily or Randall Evans. I think those guys’ capabilities, if we can develop them rapidly enough and in the right direction, can step in and have an impact. A young guy that we moved from quarterback to linebacker to be able to do exactly the same thing will be very beneficial to us. The young guys on our defensive line that have not been on the field have a chance to become significant to be able to develop themselves.”